Prof. Elizabeth Castelli weighs in on predictions that did not predict

In The Revealer, religion professor Elizabeth Castelli draws connections between two non-events: The Rapture and the release of a report on the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. She writes:

"Last week, two things did not happen. The Rapture did not take place on May 21, 2011, despite the fervent prognostications of a retired engineer-turned-Christian broadcaster and biblical numerologist. Meanwhile, the sex abuse scandal that has mired the Catholic Church in litigation and shame for nearly three decades was not resolved nor even really explained, despite the earnest efforts of the number-crunching social scientists at the John Jay College for Criminal Justice, City University of New York. The coincidence of these two non-happenings was more than a matter of the calendar."

Prof. Elizabeth Castelli is the chair of Barnard's Religion Department and a specialist in biblical studies, early Christianity, and feminist/gender studies in religion. She is the author of Martyrdom and Memory: Early Christian Culture Making.